Sri Lanka Day 1 – Dubai to Negombo

Sri Lanka Day 1 - Dubai to Negombo

Our route to Sri Lanka was split into two, the first stop flying to Bahrain. I have to say, this was a pleasant flight to say the least! Although it was only an hour long flight we were provided with delicious chicken sandwiches and a carton of Orange juice (one of which I’ve never seen before) and since there was at least two seats per person, it made the flight much more relaxing! If only it lasted more than one hour!

After landing in Bahrain we were met with the next departure towards Colombo. On first glance there appeared to be a cancellation for the flight to Delhi...meaning the airport had been turned into a hot sweaty mess with no ability to move more than a few steps in either direction.

Once we had climbed aboard our next flight it soon became clear that it would not be like the last. Unfortunately, myself and Kristy were placed in front of the only two children onboard with an appetite for screaming in our ears; fast forward 6 hours and we had both reached Colombo airport, albeit a little broken and with minor hearing loss! The most interesting thing I found on first arrival was the swell of a dark storm looming in the distance..although it never came directly over us, this made it a peaceful and majestic sight to behold!

The next and final phase of our day was to make our way to the Marine Tourist Guest house where we would spend the night. An incredibly useful app we used was the Uber app - using the airport free WiFi we booked the Uber to pick us up just outside. Although Tuk Tuk seemed like a cheap alternative, we didn’t want to run the risk of being taken to the cleaners (at this point were very shiny and new tourists so it may have been easy for someone to take advantage of that!), the Uber was simple, fast and efficient...it even told us how much it would be and where the car location was (If you had internet). For the cost of driving 15 minutes to our Hostel and ample space to fit our bags, it was priced at around £1.25 or 280Rupees.

Finally, we had reached our first Hostel for the night! I have to say, we treated ourselves a little bit with a deluxe double room with en-suite and air-con (there was no doubt about it, we had to have somewhere cool after all the sweating). The irony of the whole thing is that we left the air con on low all night meaning we sat shivering in bed trying to find the remote to turn it off!